Stephen De Staebler creates clay and bronze sculptures of the human figure that often juxtapose the frailty of individual lives against the remarkable resilience of mankind. Their form is rooted in ruins of classical sculpture, memorial stele, and architectural friezes...Figure Column IX is a life-size, fractured representation of a human body--a leg, a second partial leg, an androgynous pelvis, a stomach, and a chest. The figure rises from a rocklike outcropping, suggesting humankind's dependence on, and tenuous relationship with, the natural world. It was formed lying on its back in a brick trough.

from Snite Museum of Art, Selected Works: Snite Museum of Art (Notre Dame, 2005)